Manga and Comic Reviews
Osamu Tezuka’s proto-shoujo epic wraps up much as it began. In this second volume, the mangaka continues to churn through story concepts — Franz finding out Sapphire’s identity, Prince Plastic getting Sapphire’s boy heart, Sapphire on the brink of death with Captain Blood questing to a foreign land to save — at a shocking pace. […]
Remember when I said that the first volume of this series did a good job of conveying the “inner sadness” of its poor little rich boy protagonist’s life? Well, this second volume proceeds to do just about everything it can to undermine any sympathy I had for the character of Yozo Oba. After the events […]
What I like most about Dark Horse Publisher Mike Richardson’s documented love of short stories is that Mike Mignola loves to exploit– er, make that, utilize the publishing opportunities it provides. This means that in the gaps between collections of the next “proper” arcs of “Hellboy” and “B.P.R.D.” we occasionally get volumes like this that […]
Longtime readers will know that I’ve banged the drum quite loudly this year in getting people to pick up vol. 13 of “Eden: It’s An Endless World!” when it arrived after a two-year wait. It’s not the only Dark Horse Manga series to have gone on “hiatus” as their catalogue is littered with titles that […]
Chief Red Crow prepares his re-election campaign. Agent Nitz reaches the bottom of the barrel and finds the “War on Terror” there. Catcher finds out that God’s role for him is quite different from what he thought it was. Carol continues to adjust to domestic life. Dino Poor Bear doesn’t get the girl. Shunka gets […]
After seventeen volumes, Osamu Tezuka’s best long-form series comes to an end. There have been over a hundred stories involving the title character’s miraculous medical prowess and the majority of them have been good, if not excellent. It’s certainly entertaining to see him break the laws of medical reality on a near-regular basis, but it’s […]
Vol. 19 of “Slam Dunk” is almost as thrilling as its previous installments. We’re still knee-deep in the Shohoku/Ryonan match and even though the former begins the second half by six points, Rukawa shows he still has plenty in the tank to help make up that deficit. Not one to be outshone by his rival, […]
Robert Kirkman has said that if it wasn’t for the zombies, then “The Walking Dead” wouldn’t be anything more than a boring soap opera. The worst thing that can be said about the past seven episodes of this season is that there has been more than one occasion where his words have been proven right. […]
It has been almost an entire year since we got a proper collection of this series, and the wait was worth it. “Highland Laddie” was a mini-series that ran concurrent with the main title, and while it had a few things that were relevant to the overall story, I’ve been looking forward to finding out […]
The first volume of this series was something that I wanted to like more than I actually did. A thoroughly irreverent take on some traditional fantasy tropes, its wiseass sensibility only took it so far. Unless you’re very, VERY good, then at some point you’ll actually need to start adding some actual substance to the […]